Broadcast TV should take a shareware model.
Lately, the news is full of bailouts for major players in the economy. Banks, Insurance companies, and now the big three car companies have their hand out waiting for the government to solve their problems by creating a plethora of others. I get a kick out of people who tell me, “why isn’t the government bailing out my company?” Well, let’s see, you don’t employ thousands of people and entire corporate structures are not reliant on your companies success, so yeah, you’re on your own.
I get why the bailouts are happening and I definitely see the benefits of such, however, when does it end? Today I heard that the Networks are also finding their place in line for handouts as well. Why would they need bailouts, you ask? Well, apparently the big three auto companies are a major source of advertising for the networks and since they are broke, they are advertising less, and the networks are hemorrhaging money.
This makes me wonder if this is why the networks are getting so picky about the shows they keep on the air. They are cancelling everything these days, and a lot of good shows are falling by the wayside. “My Own Worst Enemy”, “Pushing Daisies”, “Eli Stone”, etc etc.
Being a fan of all the above shows it made me wonder what the heck?!
So, getting to the point finally, what can TV networks do to keep good shows like the above on the air, even if they aren’t getting the “ratings” they need? They should use the shareware model. Hear me out.
This idea came to me a few weeks back when I was downloading the first few episodes of “Life on Mars” from iTunes, since I had completely spaced it off, and missed it on my TiVo. Networks should release a show to TV for 8 – 13 episodes, to effectively get you hooked to the show, and then drop it from air and release all further episodes on a PPV model through online markets like iTunes, and even their own online medium, that they all have set up already.
For instance, “My Own Worst Enemy” got canceled because only about 5 million people were watching it. Some of the complaints were that the show was too confusing (translation: too intelligent) and some of the heavy actors in the show were not being utilized. OK, so suppose the show costs 1 million dollars to create one episode. If 20 percent of people currently watching purchased future episodes, at 2.99 per, from online sources, then the budget is met, and money can be made.
I, for one, am willing to pay for shows I like, especially ad free, and feel that we are moving toward a world where your average consumer feels similarly and will understand HOW to do this as well.
This allows for the current model of TV watching that we know and love, with ads, where shows can be tested and premium high viewership shows can remain on the air, and shows that lots of love, but don’t cater to the masses can find a home in PPV model.
This is kind of a rambling blog post, and I apologize for that, but share your thoughts on this in the comments. Would you pay for a show you like, but isn’t sustainable through typical ad methods on the networks?
